This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Overgrown garden
paul_tutein
Posts: 2
Dear gardeners,
We have just acquired a property and the garden hasn't been looked after for a while and the weeds have taken over. We don't have any gardening experience but would like to tackle this ourselves as we think it is a nice project and also because we cannot afford a professional. We would like to get rid of the weeds, and have a lawn from the patio to the back. We would like to keep the trees and the mature plants. We are hoping you could help us with the following questions:
1) What tools do you think we should buy (or rent)?
2) What are the steps we need to take and in what order?
3) Is there anything we can do now (pre-winter)?
4) What pesticides do you recommend, if any?
We have attached some pictures to give you an idea of how it looks today.
Many thanks in advance for all your advice!!
Kind regards,
Paul
We have just acquired a property and the garden hasn't been looked after for a while and the weeds have taken over. We don't have any gardening experience but would like to tackle this ourselves as we think it is a nice project and also because we cannot afford a professional. We would like to get rid of the weeds, and have a lawn from the patio to the back. We would like to keep the trees and the mature plants. We are hoping you could help us with the following questions:
1) What tools do you think we should buy (or rent)?
2) What are the steps we need to take and in what order?
3) Is there anything we can do now (pre-winter)?
4) What pesticides do you recommend, if any?
We have attached some pictures to give you an idea of how it looks today. Many thanks in advance for all your advice!!
Kind regards,
Paul
0
Posts
Clear off the paving,and cut the grass and it'll look a million times better.
Please avoid all pesticides at all costs. Start as you mean to go on. Pesticides kill beneficial insects too ( despite what the packaging might say )
As for tools I would say fork,spade,secateurs,loppers,shears,rake and a lot of time and muscle!
I think a general tidy up,clear paths,patio etc would be fairly easy and probably not as bad as you would at first think and you can then see a bit better what you are working with.
When we moved in and started work on a similar garden a few years ago my OH almost trod on a hibernating hedgehog
Thankfully a disaster was averted and now hedgehogs visit us every night for their cat biscuits and a drink of fresh water from their bowl on the terrace ... but this week they're snuffling around in the undergrowth looking for a cosy place to spend the winter.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
You've come to the right place.
Can't add much to the good advice already given but I would certainly get the paths and patio area cleared first so that you can access other parts of the garden. When you do start work on the borders etc, do a small area at a time as it can be easy to get overwhelmed by it all - I've been there and done that.
Clear the paving and terrace of weeds and cut the grass and it will look a whole lot better. Remove obvious weeds like brambles, nettles, thistles and take up as much of their roots as you can get out because they will regrow from scraps. You should then be able to see the shae of beds and plants much more easily. Take photos as you go.
Then draw out a plan of the garden after measuring your boundaries and not the position of the sun at various times of day so you see where will be the best places for siting a seating/dining area, shade for cooling off and so on and then make a separate list of what you'd like as you progress - formal or informal, colours, perfume, textures, fruit, veggies, herbs, compost bins, potting bench, cold frames, greenhouse, pond or water feature, wildlife shelter.
As for tools, I really like the Wolf system. You but individual heads as and whan you need them and then different lengthhandles for hand work or standing. I like the double egded hoe best as I find it easier than a Dutch hoe. You'll also need a rake, maybe the pruning saw, a cultivator head and the spring tined rake for clearing debris off lawns - https://www.worldofwolf.co.uk/categories/multi-change-tools. A good pair of secateurs is a must and Felco are the best and will alst for years if well cared for. Longhandled loppers are good to have too but always by parrot or by pass and not the anvil blades. A wheelbarrow will be handy and a trug or two.
If you want to guarantee having spring colour, buy some packs of bulbs and plant them in pots - big enough to respect planting depths of each bulb variety - and then keep them in a sheltered spot out of the worst of the frosts. Then, come spring, you'll have a displayto enjoy in decorative pots or, if you use ordinary plastic, you can plunge them in the borders where there are gaps.